14 DAY TRIAL // The development team at Epic Games might be unwilling to talk about the core mechanics of its upcoming Fortnite at the moment, but its leader, Tim Sweeney, says that his company is trying to make sure that it captures the trends of the future of gaming.
The executive is quoted by Polygon as saying that Fortnite started life as a project from an internal studio game jam and then evolved over time to combine elements from building games, action combat, and some light MMO mechanics.
Sweeney states, “We’re looking at the future of gaming from kind of a Valve or Riot point of view, making your games really accessible, being fair to customers and giving them a great value with a game that can be played for hundreds or thousands of hours.”
The company wants gamers to offer their feedback on how Fortnite plays and will shape both future content and mechanics in order to suit their interests.
When talking about Valve and Riot Games, the executive is probably referring to the likes of DOTA 2, Team Fortress 2, League of Legends, and other MOBA titles.
Epic Games might be interested in exploring the future of gaming, but the company is also focused on delivering new experiences for its long-term faithful audience.
Sweeney explains that “We’re also in the early development stages of a game that will continue the Epic tradition of pushing high-end, leading-edge graphics. We’re working very close with Nvidia on new features and capabilities to bring things to the next level. We won’t be announcing that for a long time but we’re continuing to be at the forefront.”
The new title will probably use the new Unreal Engine 4, and the delay of the announcement is designed to give Epic Games the time it needs to polish the experience.
Fortnite is expected to be launched on the PC, the PlayStation 4 from Sony, and the Xbox One from Microsoft before the end of the current year.
At the same time, Epic Games will continue to work with all the developers who use Unreal Engine 4 in order to make sure that the tech reaches its full potential.
It’s unclear whether the company has plans to create a traditional shooter for its next big project, but it has made it clear that it does not want to use the core concepts seen in the older Samaritan engine demo.